1. Technical Field
The following disclosure relates generally to knives, and in particular to chef knives.
2. State of the Art
A knife is a cutting tool with an exposed cutting edge and has been in existence for centuries. Today's knives can generally be broken down into two types: fixed blade knives and folding blade knives. Today's knives are also comprised of at least two parts: the blade and the handle. With a fixed blade knife, the blade and the handle are fixed with respect to one another. With a folding blade knife, the blade is typically structured to retract, fold, or otherwise move with respect to the handle to position the blade, or at least a portion of the blade, within the handle.
One of the more prominent knives in the Western world is the chef's knife, a fixed-blade knife that is also known as a French knife or a cook's knife. The chef's knife is used prominently in the realm of food preparation and is often utilized as a general-utility knife in a chef's kitchen. The standard chef's knife is typically comprised of a blade and a handle. The handle can be attached to the blade after manufacture of the blade itself, or the blade can be integral with the handle, such that the blade and the handle are formed of one piece of material. In the case where the blade is integral with the handle, the portion of the material that forms the handle, or a part of the handle, is referred to as the tang. The tang can extend partially down the length of the handle from the heel of the blade to the butt of the handle or the tang can extend completely down the length of the handle from the heel to the butt. Decorative handles can be formed around the tang by coupling the decorative handles to the tang by way of rivets.
As mentioned above, conventional chef's knives are useful in food preparation, and in particular for mincing, slicing, and chopping vegetables and fruits, among other things, as well as slicing meat and disjointing large cuts of meat. However, the usefulness of the conventional chef's knife is only as good as the knife blade's cutting edge is sharp. Using the cutting edge of the chefs knife for other purposes, such as to move prepared foods from place to place around the cutting surface by scraping the knife's cutting edge across the cutting surface, significantly dulls the cutting edge, which reduces the efficiency of the knife and shortens the knife's life span due to the fact that the knife must more frequently be sharpened. Moreover, the safe use of the knife is diminished in direct correlation with the sharpness of the knife's cutting edge. As the knife's cutting edge is dulled, more and more pressure must be applied by the user to achieve the same cutting result as that of a sharp cutting edge. As more pressure is applied, the knife is more likely to slip and result in cuts and punctures to the user.
There is thus a need in the industry for a chef's knife that addresses the issues presented above.